By Scott Wright
SCOTTISH pub owners will not be jumping for joy in response to the indicative reopening dates revealed by Nicola Sturgeon yesterday, a senior industry figure declared.
Hospitality outlets will be able to reopen from April 26 under the Scottish Government’s timetable for easing coronavirus restrictions. However, operators will have to abide by strict conditions and will initially not be allowed to serve alcohol indoors, with outlets closing at 8pm. Venues will be able to sell alcohol in outdoors and keep external areas open until 10pm from that date.
A further easing of restrictions is scheduled for May 17, when bars, pubs, restaurants and cafes can open until 10.30pm with alcohol permitted and “2 hour time-limited slots”.
Paul Waterson, veteran hotelier and spokesman for the Scottish Licensed Trade Association, said the severity of the continuing restrictions in the coming months will put the industry under huge pressure.
“The idea you can open indoors from April 26 without selling alcohol is ridiculous,” Mr Waterson told The Herald. “To go through to the end of June with these restrictions means many places will not be viable. Even after June, places won’t be viable, as social distancing means we can lose up to 60 per cent of capacity.”
Mr Waterson added: “There will be some businesses jumping for joy, but it won’t be pubs.”
Research carried out by the SLTA suggested the average pub has taken on debts of between £60,000 and £90,000 since the crisis began. “That was in February,” Mr Waterson said. “They will be working for a year to pay that back with deferred bills and so on.”
The SLTA would like the Scottish Government to continue providing grants until the temporary cut in VAT for hospitality ends in April 2022.
Donald MacLeod, live music promoter and owner of The Garage and The Cathouse in Glasgow, said he was “encouraged” Ms Sturgeon had mentioned events, concerts and nightclubs, “but that was all she did.”
He told The Herald: “For my sector, there are no indicative dates for reopening and no financial support guaranteed – there is in England.
“The industry is steeling itself… that it will be August, the end of summer [before it reopens]. But we are worried – at every step there is a caveat that there might be a new variant.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here